Monday, December 20, 2010

Headlines - Monday December 20

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Betty Bowers (America's best Christian): Wishing the Tea Party a very Merry CHRISTmas. Whether you're elbowing a fellow shopper at Wal-Mart to get the last "Jesus is the Reason for the Season" rhinestone sweatshirt, passed out in a corduroy Laz-Z-Boy in you rumpus room, whipping up last-minute holiday gifts in the meth lab or visiting your sons/parents in penitentiaries, may the joys of the holiday be with you and yours!

And this: "We'll put the Christ back in Christmas if you ever put the Christ back in Christian. You go first, dear."

New York: Monsignor Charles Kavanagh has been defrocked after being found guilty of child molestation by a three-priest Catholic tribunal. He is the highest-ranked New York priest so judged and has not faced criminal charges.Oklahoma: Pastor Baron Hopgood arrested for embezzlement.Ireland: Father Oliver O'Grady charged with possessing thousands of child porn images.Ohio: Pastor Mark Griggs charged with more than 100 felony counts of possessing and distributing child porn.Britain: Monsignor Michael Smith arrested for child molestation.Colorado: Pastor Loren Ankarlo pleads guilty to multi-million dollar securities fraud.Ontario: Father Donald Grecco found guilty on 24 counts of molesting altar boys.Missouri: Father Gerald Howard indicted on three counts of forcible sodomy of a child. Howard was previously convicted of similar crimes in New Jersey under a different name.Ohio: Pastor Robert Jones fails to appear at his trial for brandishing a gun at a drive-thru bank teller.Ireland: Father Tony Walsh likely to have molested hundreds, according to a new report.Britain: Vicar Dominic Stone convicted of possessing child porn.Nevada: Pastor Joshua De Los Santos arrested for assaulting a member of a "competing" church for not being holy enough.Tennessee: Pastor David Hoschar indicted for possessing child porn.

This Week's WinnerGeorgia: Bishop Eddie Long, who is already facing lawsuits from four young men who accuse him of sexual coercion, has been linked to a massive mortgage fraud operation being run from his church. According to CBS Atlanta, thousands may have lost their homes after paying $1500 during church seminars held by a company that promised to lower their house payments. CBS reports that the seminars are still being held.

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God's Gentle Loving People, Part 97

Former U.S. Navy Chaplain Gordon Klingenschmitt is so very unhappy about yesterday's Senate vote to repeal DADT. Via Christian Newswire:

"Homosexual sin will always be a stench in the nostrils of Almighty God, an abomination which God condemns and shall punish with everlasting destruction. Even if the Senate had voted 100 to 0 to legalize sin, they could not remove God from His throne of Judgment, before which every knee shall bow, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.

"I hereby call upon the new Congress to never certify that the military is ready to implement repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell, and instead pass strong laws protecting the rights of Christian troops (especially chaplains) to openly speak their opinions about what the Bible calls sin, to refuse common showers, sleeping quarters and 'social re-education' without repercussion, guaranteeing religious freedom even outside of chapel services. If free speech and free religion rights of Christian chaplains and troops are not protected, then the military is not ready to certify or implement repeal, and will quickly begin to persecute good people of Christian conscience.

Klingenschmitt claims to have a network of "125,000 patriot pastors" who will heed his call to deluge the next Congress to block the implementation of the repeal of DADT.

RELATED: Klingenschmitt was dishonorably discharged from the military after a 2006 court martial because he attended a political protest outside the White House in his uniform. Since then numerous news outlets have noted Klingenschmitt's lying press releases which say he was ejected for "praying in Jesus' name." Klingenschmitt has also issued "imprecatory prayers" calling for God to kill the leaders of the Americans United for Separation of Church and State.

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The disintegration of John McCain

If John McCain gets any more hostile toward his Senate colleagues, they might consider having him go through the metal detector before he enters the Capitol.

Saturday's debate on the repeal of the "don't ask, don't tell" policy was only half an hour old when the Arizona Republican burst onto the floor from the cloakroom, hiked up his pants and stalked over to his friend Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) and Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.). Ignoring Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.), who had the floor, McCain hectored the men noisily for a few moments, waving his arms for emphasis.

When McCain finally stormed off, Durbin shook his head in exasperation and Lieberman smiled. A minute later, McCain returned -- he had apparently remembered another element of his grievance -- and resumed his harangue.

Seriously, someone needs to pull him aside and urge him either to retire or up the dosage on his meds. He's just an embarrassment and the positive reputation he once enjoyed has been all but erased with this kind of dick-move behavior.

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Kyl - Gays May Cost Lives, Nukes? Not So Much

The usual cast of characters are out and about today spreading the gospel of anti-gay fearmongering and lamenting the repeal of DADT, but one sad individual in particular caught my attention.

Kyl suggested that the troops have one function, which is "to fight and to fight well," while potentially sacrificing their lives to fulfill the goal. According to the Senate Minority Whip, repealing Don't Ask, Don't Tell could inhibit the process and as a result "cost lives."

Apparently having gays within the ranks may cost lives, but blocking the new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START), as Jon Kyl has done, is not as big of a threat.

Republicans obviously cannot be trusted on matters of national security. Politics, and more specifically opposing President Obama, is more important to them.

A lot of left-wing media and bloggers have reacted very negatively, writing a lot of false information. They only represent a minority of the people in this nation. The majority of people in this area and across the nation are supportive. The statistics show about 200 million people would want to come if the ark were rebuilt. Locally, the majority of people are really thrilled because it's family-friendly and it would bring hundreds of jobs to the region.

The current US population is a bit over 300 million…so Ken Ham is waving around two thirds of the population of the country as prospective customers, if only the state will give him some support? Does anyone believe this guy?

Imagine you're a tourist visiting the Cincinnati area. You've got the choice of taking the family to Kings Island, a major recreational park nearby, or the equivalent of Heritage USA, an evangelical Christian park with no rides, presided over by a creepy Australian dude who demands that you obey his 'literal' interpretation of the Bible or burn in hell.

Do you think the creepy dude actually has a realistic business plan?

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DADT repeal allows gays out of closet, but McCain stays in cave like Japanese WWll holdouts - By Don Davis

"MY FRIENDS, IT'S STILL NOT TOO LATE TO FIX THIS HORRENDOUS LAW, BY LIMITING IT TO TWO YEARS AND ONLY TO THE RICHEST GAYS IN THE MILITARY, MAKING MORE THAN $250,000 A YEAR."

So besides dragging down the US and the Middle East, Rove is set to deliver his destruction to yet another country. Huffington Post.

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Any Member of the outgoing 111th Congress wondering if they should apply for reelection help from Blue America for the 2012 midterms can consult this page from the House Clerk's official roll call on the Obama/McConnell job-killing/economy devastating tax giveaway to millionaires and billionaires. Any incumbent who voted YES-- and there were 139 Democrats who went along with this Conservative Consensus travesty -should save themselves the trouble and the inevitable rejection of even asking for help. Get your payoffs from the millionaires and billionaires. Keep reading: http://downwithtyranny.blogspot.com/2010/12/obama-mcconnell-conservative-consensus.html

About a third of California's uninsured had family incomes of more than $50,000 a year in 2009, according to the California HealthCare Foundation.

Indeed, the percentage of uninsured among families earning between $50,000 and $75,000 annually has nearly doubled over the past decade.

It costs about $13,000/year to buy good quality (not "Cadillac" quality) insurance for a family in Western New York, so I assume that it's that expensive or more in California. That's a big bite even if you're making between $50K and $75K.

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"Thanks to Chief Justice Roberts, the name of the Supreme Court of the United States is being changed to the U. S. Chamber of Commerce. Isn't he cute as a button?"

We wonder why we didn't hear about the first Chevron oil spill in Salt Lake City, let alone the second one "In a twisted case of actualized déjà vu, Chevron spilled 100 barrels of oil into the Red Butte Creek area of Salt Lake City, narrowly missing the waterways... . ...waterways that were gifted about 800 barrels of spilled crude from the exact same pipeline last June. The community is still busy cleaning up the first mess, and Mayor Ralph Becker has expressed his own "outrage." While Mayor Becker has supposedly been a bit soft with Chevron even since June's spill, he has now explicitly stated what people around the world realize: "We cannot trust Chevron.""

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We totally didn't see this coming, but we're thrilled that it happened. "The Senate unexpectedly approved food safety legislation by unanimous consent Sunday evening, rescuing a bill that floated in limbo for weeks because of a clerical error. ... The Senate passed the Food Safety and Modernization Act on Nov. 30 by a vote of 73-25 (25 Republicons against food safety). But the bill was later invalidated by a technical objection because it was a revenue-raising measure that did not originate in the House - Senate staff had failed to substitute the food safety language into a House-originated bill. ... A coalition of groups supporting the bill sent a letter Sunday to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) calling for action on food safety. ... "Our organizations are writing to support attaching S. 510, the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act, to the Senate's proposed short-term continuing resolution," the groups wrote. "Strong food-safety legislation will reduce the risk of contamination and provide FDA with the resources and authorities the agency needs to help make prevention the focus of our food safety strategies.""

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It was hard to pick a winner this year with so many fine upstanding nominees who went to every length possible to win. In fact you could say that they were all winners but our job is to pick the biggest asshole group of them all.

Dust off your fiddle and play a nice slave owner hymn: It's Secession Remembrance Week in South Carolina! And what better way to honor your treasonous, slave-owning heritage than to attend the magnificent Charleston Secession Ball this evening? (Lindsey Graham will wear his favorite gown, the one made out of ham biscuits. Good luck, eligible bachelors!) Other activities include "sitting around talking about the good ol' days" and "spitting into a cup." This year marks the Sesquicentennial celebration, which is maybe why some dingbat Kleagle from the Sons of Confederate Veterans got all hot and bothered and said this: "We could look back and say [the Civil War] wasn't something to celebrate … But we do celebrate the courage and the integrity of 170 men who signed their signatures to the Article of Secession — the courage of men to do what they think is right." Where is William Tecumseh Sherman when you need some flames? [McClatchy]

Nine years after the terrorist attacks of 2001, the United States is assembling a vast domestic intelligence apparatus to collect information about Americans, using the FBI, local police, state homeland security offices and military criminal investigators.